out of the cities, the winter being now
past; and he healed their sick, and in the desert fed them to the number of
five thousand men, besides women and children, with only five loaves and
two fishes, _Matth._ xiv. _Luke_ ix. at the doing of which miracle the
Passover of the _Jews_ was nigh, _John_ vi. 4. But _Jesus_ went not up to
this feast; but _after these things walked in _Galilee_, because the
_Jews__ at the Passover before had taken counsel to destroy him, and still
_sought to kill him_, John vii. i. Henceforward therefore he is found first
in the coast of _Tyre_ and _Sidon_, then by the sea of _Galilee_,
afterwards in the coast of _Caesarea Philippi_; and lastly at _Capernaum_,
_Matth._ xv. 21, 29. xvi. 13. xvii. 34.

Afterwards when the feast of Tabernacles was at hand, his brethren
upbraided him for walking secretly, and urged him to go up to the feast.
But he went not till they were gone, and then went up privately, _John_
vii. 2. and when the _Jews_ sought to stone him, he escaped, _John_ viii.
59. After this he was at the feast of the Dedication in winter, _John_ x.
22. and when they sought again to take him, he fled beyond _Jordan_, _John_
x. 39, 40. _Matth_. xix. 1. where he stayed till the death of _Lazarus_,
and then came to _Bethany_ near _Jerusalem_, and raised him, _John_ xi. 7,
18. whereupon the _Jews_ took counsel from that time to kill him: and
_therefore_ he _walked no more openly among the _Jews_, but went thence
into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called _Ephraim_; and
there continued with his disciples_ till the last Passover, in which the
_Jews_ put him to death, _John_ xi. 53, 54.

Thus have we, in the Gospels of _Matthew_ and _John_ compared together, the
history of _Christ_'s actions in continual order during five Passovers.
_John_ is more distinct in the beginning and end; _Matthew_ in the middle:
what either omits, the other supplies. The first Passover was between the
baptism of _Christ_ and the imprisonment of _John, John_ ii. 13. the second
within four months after the imprisonment of _John_, and _Christ_'s
beginning to preach in _Galilee_, _John_ iv. 35. and therefore it was
either that feast to which _Jesus_ went up, when the Scribe desired to
follow him, _Matth._ viii. 19. _Luke_ ix. 51, 57. or the feast before it.
The third was the next feast after it, when the corn was eared and ripe,
_Matth_, xii. 1. _Luke_ vi. 1. The fourth was that which was nigh at hand
when _C